Social media: Limiting our ability to think and listen democratically?

At the beginning of  A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley writes, "People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think." Given the near "Week Without the Web," my mind has been circulating around thoughts of social media and modern technologies that allow us to continually express our opinions. Are we in such a state of adoration with technology that we are unable to think and listen?

Despite an individual's reasoning for their connection to digital media in their personal life, my observations of peers conclude that people in my age group are not concerned with professional networking or things of that nature through the Facebook and Twitter mediums. Rather, it seems they are mostly concerned about the coolest possible new profile picture they could create to display their unique self and artistic style.

Recently, for one of my media classes, I have been observing peers to see their social behaviors while connected to digital media. One subject, a male senior broadcast journalism major, went on to strictly answer a message and signed off right after that. They didn't look at any photos of themselves or anything on their wall. Another subject however, a female sophomore undeclared major, spent an entire three hour class on Facebook--commenting on photos, keeping a dialogue up on other people's walls, changing their profile picture (they actually did it twice) and watching videos on silent while a professor was teaching the class. She would constantly look up from her computer to see if the professor noticed that she was not paying attention at all. 
 


With the given observations of subjects, it seems that our society is becoming increasingly narcissistic by the mouse click. Alexis de Tocqueville argued in the 19th century for Democracy in America. The most prevalent of his thoughts was that everyone in a society has the liberty to have a voice and express their opinions and thoughts. I have to wonder however, are we expressing our voices and opinions via social media just so that we can, well, hear and see them again on our own?

Some media theorists believe that those creating and controlling new technologies are the people we continue to wrestle with. But are we in a wrestling match with...ourselves? And if Huxley was correct in stating that people will adore the technologies, are the new egocentric mediums just a way for us to "Like" ourselves more?

Network Transparency: Beginning to exist because of PR shift or is the other party simply at fault?

In the early 1900s, the Pennsylvania railroad companies learned the relevant notion of transparency. After the railroad experienced difficulties when a wreck occurred on teh railroad and the corporation chose to keep the news of the accident to the public. At this time, PR pundit Ivy Lee told the company that he disagreed with their deicision to try and keep the news private. By doing so, he developed an early sense of transparency in the public communications arena for crisis communications situations.

Last semester in a media relations course, a professor addressed the fact that a few years ago, the ABC network chose to conveniently neglected to cover a controversial story that involved Disney's Animal Kingdom and a third party. With the current media ownership monopoly, it seems that networks do not betray their owners--would CBS cover a story about Viacom? Or would NBC rat out Universal? ABC's decision to not cover a story about a problematic Disney World province is a seemingly ignorant corporate deicison in this day and age; especially after the bricks of transparency were laid by modern PR founder Lee himself.

Newer PR models teach agencies and corporations to be transparent.Major corporations like Graco, BP and Toyota have led by example by admitting to their faults and clearing the smoke from the air at the beginning of a crisis instead of waiting for it to stew and boil over into a more extravagant crisis. The Pennsylvania Railroad owners at the beginning of the 20th century believed this was an effective way to rid themselves of difficult   I have to wonder if the news networks will follow suit. For example, when will ABC learn that not covering a story about an incident in the Animal Kingdom is detrimental to their overall image.

I have to wonder, do I just notice this shift because I study media and PR daily? And more importantly, is it even noticeable to the general public that is constantly eating what five total corporate news owners are feeding them? With all the talk of media bias these days in the Information Age craze, I believe it can only be a matter of time until the current news networks follow the path of Lee himself.